There's nothing special about using the internet. Millions of us do it every day. But how would your life change if you couldn't see a screen?

Key points:

Navigating websites can be a struggle for Australians with a vision impairment

Australian laws prohibit discriminating against a disability when providing goods or services

WA's equal opportunity commissioner has called for mandatory, enforceable standards

Simply accessing the internet presents a daily challenge for more than 500,000 Australians living with a vision impairment.

Siyat Abdi, 51, is blind and faces the issue on a daily basis.

Many websites are incompatible with his screen reader — is a form of assistive technology that describes content on a screen for people who are vision impaired, blind, illiterate or have a learning disability.

Mr Abdi said about half the websites he visited each day were almost impossible to navigate.

"It's hard for us to get all the information, so navigation is one of the things and accessing that information when there's a lot of images on the website, that's also another difficult thing," he said.

"Filling in forms is also a difficult thing."

Mr Abdi finds online shopping, booking flights and applying for jobs are also major hurdles.

He said relying on others for help robbed him of his freedom and privacy.

"I feel excluded because I feel other people are able to do what they want to do on their gadgets and I'm not able to do what I want to do, so I'm finding it's a barrier to my independence," he said.

Violators slapped with thousands of lawsuits

Mr Abdi has urged businesses and web developers to ensure their websites are compatible with screen readers and include written descriptions for images.

"I'm sort of disappointed because I find that most people are targeting the big population and are actually not including the minority group in terms of accessibility and that's the disadvantage," he said.

"Every person needs to be included, every person matters in this world."

The issue has been in the spotlight in the United States recently, with thousands of law suits filed against companies in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act 1990.

That legislation provides protections and equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities to products and services.

In Australia, the Human Rights Commission only received a handful of complaints last year, but disability advocates maintained it was a major problem that had slipped under the radar.

WA Equal Opportunity Commissioner John Byrne said the issue was not isolated to people with a visual impairment.